Teens Still Prefer TV and Video to Social Media, Report Says

Teens spend an average of nine hours a day on ‘entertainment media’

Teenagers dedicate most of their entertainment media time watching TV shows and videos or listening to music, according to a new report from Common Sense Media.PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS

By

NATHALIE TADENA

American teens and tweens dedicate most of their entertainment media time to watching TV shows, movies and videos or listening to music, far ahead of social media usage, according to a new report.

The research from Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization focused on education and advocacy around technology and media for children, found that American teenagers spend an average of nine hours a day on “entertainment media” activities, including listening to music, watching TV and videos, reading books, browsing the web and playing online games.

Their younger counterparts – tweens, between the ages of 8 and 12 years old – spend an average of about six hours a day with entertainment media. The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of more than 2,600 young people between 8 and 18 years old.

Though marketers have put much heft into engaging with digital-savvy millennials, brands are starting to pay more attention to even younger generations of consumers.

While there are countless ways teens and tweens can interact with media, the overwhelming majority of young people surveyed listed watching TV and listening to music as activities that they enjoy “a lot” and engage in “every day.”

According to Common Sense’s report, teens and tweens spend roughly two-and-a-half hours a day watching TV, DVDs or videos, more than any other media activity. This category includes watching a TV program at the time it is broadcast, time-shifted viewing of a show, watching programs on a streaming video service, watching clips on platforms such as YouTube and watching shows or movies on a DVD.

For TV networks, figuring out how to make as much money on teens and tweens as they do on a traditional TV viewer will be an ongoing challenge as teens and tweens increasingly consume content on mobile devices, streaming services and other platforms. Common Sense found that mobile devices make up 41% of teens’ and 46% of tweens’ so-called “screen time.” Among teens, only half of the group’s TV and video-viewing now occurs on a TV set at the time a program is broadcast while nearly a quarter of that time involves watching online videos on YouTube and other platforms. Eight percent of teens’ TV and video viewing time involves time-shifted viewing on a TV set while 15% involves watching TV shows or movies on a device such as a computer, tablet or smartphone.

On average, teens spend nearly two hours a day listening to music while tweens spend just under an hour a day doing so. Teens and tweens each spend about an hour and 20 minutes playing video, computer or mobile games. Teens use social media for one hour and 11 minutes on average a day, compared to just 16 minutes for tweens.

Common Sense’s research found that young people overwhelmingly tend to consume other people’s media content rather than create their own. Teens and tweens spend 39% and 41% of their digital media time, respectively, “passively” consuming content such as online videos, TV shows or listening to music. In comparison, only 3% of teens and tweens’ digital media time is spent on creating content such as making art or music or writing.

The study found several differences among young people’s media usage based on gender, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity. For example, it found that teen girls spend about 40 minutes more a day with social media than teen boys on average. Meanwhile, teen boys spend an average of 56 minutes a day playing video games, compared to only 7 minutes for teen girls. While children in lower-income families were much less likely than children from higher-income families to live in homes with access to digital technologies, they tend to spend more time with media than their more affluent peers.